H Erectus Cannot Swallow Food - Help!

Doran · Jul 14, 2015

My wife has a pair of mustangs that were purchased from Ocean Riders seven months ago, and they have been extremely healthy until now. They are in a 50 gallon tank with four damselfish, 2 cardinals and a dart fish. Within the past two days two of the damselfish developed red sores on their sides and white spots on their fins. Now both seahorses have appetites and are trying to eat their PE mysis shrimp, but when they snick food from their feeding tray, they are unable to swallow it. They suck up their food and try to swallow – you can see their neck appendage going up and down, they partially eject the mysis extending it mostly out and try to swallow again and again, but ultimately end up spitting it out after several tried to swallow the mysis. Nothing in their diet has changed; twice a day they get PE mysis shrimp enriched with Vibrance II.

Today the seahorses were separated from all of their tank mates, given a 30 minute Formalin dip and moved into a 30 gallon established tank with lots of hitching posts and macro algae. They are still sucking food into their mouths, but cannot swallow it. Is this caused by a parasite or infection from the damselfish? What can I do to get my beloved seahorses healthy?

saltyphish · Jul 14, 2015

not sure how much he can help you but @Humblefish and our seahorse expert @SeahorseKeeper

Humblefish · Jul 14, 2015

Red sores on damselfish usually means Uronema marinum (see more info below.) But white spots on their fins doesn't line up with that diagnosis, unless they were afflicted by another disease concurrently. Were the white spots small specks or larger cauliflower-like growths?

Uronema marinum:

Symptoms - These are the red sores often seen on chromis damsels. The disease seems mostly confined to damsels and clownfish, but I have seen some exceptions to that.

Treatment options - This is a very difficult disease to treat. Possible treatment options include: Metronidazole (ex. Seachem MetroPlex), acriflavine (ex. Acriflavine-MS), Chloroquine phosphate and copper. The problem is the fish can never be returned to the infected tank from which it came. Uronema is a “free living” parasite which does not require a fish host. So, going fallow will not eradicate it. Most fish seem protected from it via their natural immune system; but for some reason, chromis and some other fish are not always afforded this protection. Once a tank has Uronema, it must be assumed that the disease can survive in there almost indefinitely.

Formalin bath or freshwater dip may provide temporary relief for Uronema.

SeahorseKeeper · Jul 14, 2015

What temp is the tank at? What chemicals or media do you use? It sounds like they have a weak snick.

Doran · Jul 14, 2015

Damsels/chromic are the mellow yellow single lined....not to common. The white was very small specks and I didn't see them on the body, more on the fin/tail. One of the ones without sports/specks or sore didn't survive.

I don't know what a weak snick is?

The tank is 74/75 degrees. 3'channel doser with bi ionics in small amounts to keep levels correct...checked weekly or more. Numbers are good calc 420, alk 8.9 mag 1200. No other chemicals. Display and large sump running nothing but pumps and oversize skimmer.

Thanks!

Doran · Jul 14, 2015

I am going to break the tank completely down. All rock n sand out and drain. Fill with fresh for few days, add vinegar for another day, clean. Then start over with clean everything. Please note we are near psycho with how clean and meticulous we are, I mention this as this is not a dirty tank. I already broke down the sump and there wasn't even a sediment layer, basically clean as a whistle. But not going to risk.

Doran · Jul 14, 2015

I read on weak snick......if that's it dipping in formalin sounds like a mistake. The question is what can or should I do? They are now out of the tanks where they struggled. Do I leave them alone or dip again acting under the assumption that they have a parasite? I guess based on what I read for weak snick I could try a fresh water dip in lieu of formalin and an optional remedy that does not introduce any chemicals?

Thoughts?

Humblefish · Jul 15, 2015

Doran said:
Damsels/chromic are the mellow yellow single lined....not to common. The white was very small specks and I didn't see them on the body, more on the fin/tail. One of the ones without sports/specks or sore didn't survive.

Small white specks could have been ich. However, if you only saw them on the fin/tail then Lymphocystis is also a possibility. But Lympho usually grows in size and then disappears at some point. Fish are not usually too affected by it.

SeahorseKeeper · Jul 15, 2015

Honestly, the best thing to do for the seahorses now is to keep them in a species only tank with pristine water quality. Do you run any carbon on the tank and what specific type? Also, I would highly recommend not housing the seahorses with damsels. Damsels are too aggressive to house with seahorses. Can you post some pics of the seahorses and a video of them trying to eat? Another thing to consider doing is to feed them something smaller such as gut loaded brine shrimp.

Doran · Jul 15, 2015

SeahorseKeeper said:
Honestly, the best thing to do for the seahorses now is to keep them in a species only tank with pristine water quality. Do you run any carbon on the tank and what specific type? Also, I would highly recommend not housing the seahorses with damsels. Damsels are too aggressive to house with seahorses. Can you post some pics of the seahorses and a video of them trying to eat? Another thing to consider doing is to feed them something smaller such as gut loaded brine shrimp.

Yes running a carbon reactor. They managed to eat a couple pieces today. In the morning and this evening he ate a single peice of mysis....but they ate something ..... And it's snicked up semi normal. Just don't eat normal still but it is cautiously an improvement